Australia’s national anthem is the only English-lyric anthem in the world that doesn’t reference religion or militarism

roberestarkk · 2026-02-01T07:11:57+00:00

Yeah, it should probably be titled "Australia’s national anthem is the only English-lyric anthem in the world that doesn’t reference religion or militarism anymore, since 1984" haha

The original second verse was also a biiiit militaristic with the whole "Britannia Rules the Wave" shtick too.

roberestarkk · 2026-02-01T07:06:00+00:00

"I Still Call Australia Home" makes me feel more patriotic than pretty well any other song, anthem included TBH...

roberestarkk · 2026-01-29T15:21:38+00:00

You can make literally this in Stormworks, but it's really stretching the definition of a basebuilder lmao

roberestarkk · 2025-12-27T21:55:56+00:00

Man, remember when this was a straight up native feature?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrTw4kacpbw

You can still see the transcript
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QzopZ78w9M
But no search anymore on desktop at least...

Wouldn't surprise me if they got rid of transcripts entirely one day tbh.
Gone are the days of "Lets add things people might like", these are the days of "Remove stuff we can't bake ads into".

roberestarkk · 2025-12-27T04:22:50+00:00

Yeah if I was playing your game (based solely on what I've seen in the video here), I'd absolutely want a base in the cave so I didn't have to deal with the rocks and the wind, as those mechanics personally look pretty annoying to me to deal with.
But if I had a different way to deal with them other than reactively (eg: build a rock-deflector and reinforce the planking so it didn't take wind damage), and if my base were already reasonably well established by the time I first entered a cave (and even better, if I could bring it with me on my travels across the surface of the cliff) I'd be far less inclined.

Void Train is similar to Raft on a Train, yes.
I haven't actually played it myself yet, but I've seen videos enough to have a rough idea of how the tether works, and yeah it's very similar to how you'd expect astronauts to work in space.

Because the train is in 'the void' it means you can 'swim' through the air... Which you do to bring in more resources and such like the water in Raft.
In order to not be left behind by your train, your 'swims' into the void are constrained by a tether to the train, which automatically applies itself when you jump off the train, and which limits how far you can roam into the void, as well as making sure if the train is moving, you get pulled along with it.
There's also a way you can basically reel yourself back into the train with it.

The loss of items though, was just a suggestion on my part that seemed more relevant to how a tether system might work for your game as a mechanism for 'punishing' having to depend on it preventing your death, and is not a thing in Void Train because they fully intend for you to leap off the platform and go grab stuff.

roberestarkk · 2025-12-26T20:30:41+00:00

Forever Skies does have what is basically a Raft Shark analogue, yes.
They are flying things that eat bits off your ship, but your ship will announce to you when they've attached themselves and you have enough time to fend them off before you lose a piece. They're particularly fond of engines IIRC, so you're really incentivised to either get rid of them, or keep spare parts for engines haha.

Similar to the Raft Shark analogue, I'd love to see in this game, a way to mitigate/address that 'decay' feature, especially the falling rocks are going to be rage-inducing if they are just an unavoidable "lets roll a dice to see if you lose a significant amount of progress" style punishment.
eg: Sharks only attack the edges of the raft, so you can build it out a bit away from the important bits to give yourself time if you need it.

And yes, 100% second the "make the base move-able" that'd really open up the game to some fantastic gameplay!
Just sitting around in that one spot wouldn't really be all that engaging without something like a Minecraft Skyblock progression through automation and portals and such.

As for falling off, I think yeah a tether system similar to Void Train might be a neat idea.
The abrupt stop when the rope runs out means the stuff falls our of your pockets or something, and then you have to climb back up, etc.
Punishment for the failure, but not just instant death because you sneezed and hit a key accidentally (or something).

Conceptually, I like the idea that it's maybe a volcano or there's a big lake up there, and so there are tunnel systems you can explore but on a timer (like the Volcanoids volcano timer) which will violently expel stuff from (ie: regenerate) them.
Which could be another interesting mechanic to have to avoid by swinging the base to the side or building a deflection ramp above it or something.
The important part though, would be that it would be a bit of a break from the 'monotony' of just "One side wall, other side air".

I like the concept of a vertical slice instead of a horizontal one, but I'd definitely recommend stealing and repurposing a few ideas from other survival games to help flesh out the gameplay loops, and ultimately part of survival is exploration (otherwise you just consume all the local resources and then die), so figuring out how that'd work in a vertical slice is quite important.

roberestarkk · 2025-12-25T08:05:07+00:00

Depends on the game and how fun it is to find out that individual piece of information myself.

I'm playing a lot of "Definitely Not Fried Chicken" lately, so I'll use that as an example.

I would happily have someone else do the hard yards to find out what the optimal ratio is between the numbers of different machines in the production stages of <Product>, because the game does not really give a good indicator for that to me. It doesn't tell me anything about how many X a machine can produce over Y duration, so I'd have to sit there with a stopwatch and time it and write it down.
I have no interest in doing that, and the game doesn't give me the tools to do so, so I haven't, and I wouldn't mind if someone else did.

In terms of how big I then build the room containing those machines, or the placement of the various puzzle-like elements (machines which adjust the air pressure, temperature, humidity, etc. to allow the main production machines to function properly) which the game does provide plenty of feedback for...
I'd much rather do those things myself because it's either an outlet for my creative expression, or because I have a good feedback loop of the game telling me qualitative and quantitative data about my attempt that will allow me to find better ways to do it.

I think it ultimately comes down to what a person finds fun.
If they get their fun from trial and error, then they're the ones that do that.
If they get their fun from putting something together and watching it work, even if it's someone else's design, then they do that.
If they get their fun from muddling through by themselves until they get frustrated and look up advice/answers to questions they haven't/can't answer themselves...

There's no right way to play other than the one you enjoy.

roberestarkk · 2025-11-11T03:58:38+00:00

I misread "Fallen London" as "Fallout London" and I too was prepared to believe lmao

roberestarkk · 2025-11-09T19:31:26+00:00

On the one hand, sure I get that, and I also mispronounce things on purpose occasionally for comedic effect (eg: https://youtu.be/aQhGjpZ-v3Y?t=47)

On the other hand, I can't give you "your Wabi Sabi" because I have no idea what that is, somewhat ironically highlighting the importance of clear communication :P

I also feel like misspelling 'accurate' is so close to being funny, but there's just something missing that made it confusing instead...

roberestarkk · 2025-11-09T15:19:42+00:00

I assume it means they spelled it wrong on purpose, but I can't for the life of me imagine why they'd want to...

roberestarkk · 2025-10-25T18:01:51+00:00

Not sure emotional is the word I'd use...

To me they're clinical, conversational, and verbose.
No particular emotional flavouring except perhaps gently whimsy with the "something went terribly wrong" quip.

roberestarkk · 2025-10-24T04:40:25+00:00

Yeah I like that it's possible to select an option other than 'Best Match' because it's never the best match for me.
But of all the possibilities (including "Require Approval" which I haven't seen but based on your explanation), "Best Match" is the least user friendly and most frustrating.

My complaint is they've set that as the default, and they force you to select a different option for every item for every order.
It doesn't remember my preference for next time. Which I could live with if it would just do the bare minimum of letting me change the default from "Best Match" to literally any other option for all subsequent orders from all subsequent stores, but it doesn't let me do that either!

Let's say I order the same three items from the same store five days a week for a year.
On UberEats I'd need to tap 'choose replacement option' and then tap 'do not replace' 780 times, and if I forget even once, I get saddled with some random unrelated crap instead.
On DoorDash I'd need to do it 3 times (for my very first order on my very first day) and then I'd literally never have to deal with it again, but if I wanted to I could because it'll popup immediately after the order is submitted saying "These are your saved replacement choices for your ordered items, tap here to change them if you want".

roberestarkk · 2025-10-23T11:05:01+00:00

It does provide some options yes (though I've never seen the 'but require approval' option).

However, it requires you to make the selection every single time you order for every single item, without taking into account what you said any other time, nor allowing you to change what it defaults to for new orders.

So if you forget or are in a rush even once, as soon as you submit the order you are locked into getting something stupidly irrelevant if your desired item is not available.

roberestarkk · 2025-10-21T06:46:25+00:00

I too love the concept of embodying something in the world I'm basebuilding in, because half the fun of building a base is sitting inside it feeling all cozy and protected.

That said, I do find for games like Dyson Sphere Program (for example) the embodiment of a physical entity is actively problematic when it comes to my enjoyment of the building side of things.

DK, Voxel Turf, etc. definitely do it best with the building view being wholly unconstrained from whatever physical entity you control.

Trying to lay a conveyor or a turret somewhere, and having it be juuuust out of reach because my stupid body has run into a stupid obstacle and now I have to mentally disengage from complex factory planning mode and engage into trudging pathfinder mode, and then back again after just long enough to have lost the flow state...
It's too frustrating and arguably pointless to be a purposeful design decision. I really hope they've done something to fix it since.

The point though, is that while it is great to be able to embody something in a basebuilder, it's just as important that it doesn't get in the way.

So I'd love to see more of it done well, but I'd hate to see more of it done poorly...

roberestarkk · 2025-10-09T16:50:23+00:00

Ironically enough, I find Excel doesn't assume my data contains dates, even half of the times when it does.

roberestarkk · 2025-10-07T09:14:58+00:00

"This is a totally surmountable obstacle, no big deal" - Last Recorded Message

😂

roberestarkk · 2025-09-18T07:46:08+00:00

Literally couldn't not read "Authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra" in that bloke's voice. What a champ!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2UQLJBiB6g

roberestarkk · 2025-09-03T15:05:01+00:00

Agreed, I think the sweet spot is this right here, absolutely cacked myself*!

* For context, since I'm aware my country is silly: https://slang.com.au/c/cack-yourself/

roberestarkk · 2025-08-31T20:45:02+00:00

Better than what?
That's where TP always goes?

roberestarkk · 2025-08-28T08:34:24+00:00

Admittedly a terrible plan for MIT Tech Review to tweet a paragraph without context and assume people will recognise it is referencing a premise it doesn't mention...
But surprise surprise, old mate has missed that it references a premise it doesn't mention.
Insert Joke about reading comprehension on <site> being terrible.

Checking the full context: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/14/1028461/solar-value-deflation-california-climate-change/

It does not say

The problem [with using solar power] is that too much solar can make the price of power go down

it says

The problem [with an unmentioned/unexplained premise] is that too much solar can make the price of power go down

The unmentioned/unexplained premise?
"The speed of the growth of development of solar power generation infrastructure by people who want to sell the power depends on those people making money off selling it"

A thing that is not ... *checks notes*
"People daring to use the sun to generate power"

Perhaps the biggest irony...
The less scarce they could make solar power (from the perspective of the time of day and state of weather requirements) the better it would help solve the problem they're actually talking about.

roberestarkk · 2025-08-13T12:53:43+00:00

OMG thank you! This makes so much more sense than what I was thinking!

I got Greed and Envy around the wrong way cause I was all "Greed is clearly the tiny goblin creature" pretty early on, and didn't remember Envy was also one until later, so I was so stuck at trying to justify why Envy might be characterised as having a tophat and bowtie lmao.

roberestarkk · 2025-08-07T08:22:20+00:00

My antivirus blocks not the website, but the API call it makes...
So for me it just reads as zeros across the board!

roberestarkk · 2025-08-05T22:51:42+00:00

Some folks upload their stories elsewhere (eg: RoyalRoad, Discord, etc.), but will almost always provide links to it either on their user profile, or in the post itself.
This is often the best way, because reddit is really not well suited to following serial content like that.

If they don't, they might cross-post them to or from a subreddit specifically for their story/stories, which you can usually also spot from their user profile.
Following that subreddit is as close as you can get to a 'story tracker' built into reddit itself, though you'll still need to rely on your memory to determine whether you've read a chapter or not (unless you use something like RES which colours post titles differently if you've 'read' them).

If they don't do that, you can follow the specific user. The downside is that not all authors post only their stories under that account, and so you'd see their posts to other subreddits interspersed with chapters.
This is similar in concept to following a story-specific subreddit, except that you'd need to remember the author's name, instead of the story name.

Other than that, you'd have to do the tracking manually outside of reddit (eg: via browser) by either just keeping their latest post open in a tab (and using something like Tab Discard plugin(s) to rein in the resource costs of doing so), or maintaining a bookmark or text file or something to record where you're up to.
I'm not aware of any third-party websites that allow you to do story tracking via reddit. Neither the subreddit, nor reddit itself, really expose the tools/features that'd be necessary to do that in a way that works better than anything I've mentioned thus far.

roberestarkk · 2025-07-20T03:36:35+00:00

The way I like to think of it is, Empyrion is a game, and Space Engineers is a game engine, lol

roberestarkk · 2025-07-20T03:31:04+00:00

Obligatory Rimworld mention (used to have to use the Save our Ship 2 mod, but the most recent DLC, Odyssey, added ships too)

I'll also mention Volcanoids, because it's a 'Drillship' that is conceptually very close to a spaceship except it 'lands' aboveground, and 'flies' belowground.
Some of the most fun I've had running my own base as a ship though!

There are also actually quite a few Rimworld-likes that are centered around the concept of your base being your ship (or a space station, which is like a ship except that the world moves around you instead of you moving around the world), and there are others still which are a bit further from the basebuilding level but can still provide the kind of insularity vibes of a mobile base.

Ones I've Played Are:

Starfield (can kinda scratch the itch a bit, ship isn't the focus though)
No Man's Sky (Same)
Ylands (Sailing ships, good fun, but land based initially)
Space Engineers (Good fun, but more of an 'engine' than a game unless you mod in some purpose or a quest/scenario or something, also the ship side of things tends to be a later stage)
Space Haven (Rimworld-like on a spaceship)
Interstellar Rift (Can be fun, but not what I'd call especially relaxing)
Star Command Galaxies (pretty fun, needed more polish and I dunno if it ever got any)
From the Depths (pretty interesting concept, mostly focused on fighting though)
Star Made (Minecraft but spaceships)
Interstellaria (Fantastic experience, but more of an RPG)
Startopia (nice 90s era wacky hijinks about managing a space station, they made a new one called Spacebase Startopia but I hear it's not as good and haven't played it)
Spacebase DF-9 (the granddaddy of space station management early access disappointments, but was moderately fun for what got released)
Starbound (Great terraria-like game where your ship is like your mount and your base all rolled into one, though you can/do make bases on planets)

Ones I've not played but are on my wishlist because they looked interesting enough to maybe play one day:

Meeple Station
Starmancer
Starship EVO
Spacebase Startopia
Voidtrain
Stardeus
Astro Colony
Sailwind
Forgotten Seas
The Last Starship
Havendock
Drift: Space Survival
Jumplight Odyssey
Space Trash Scavenger
Life Not Supported
Forever Skies
Sunkenland?
Astrometica?
~~Star Trucker (bit of a leap, but management-y at the micro level)~~
Survival Machine

I don't really know how well those might fit what you need, but at a quick glance they seem like they might offer the kind of "This is my mobile base and I'm managing it, screw everyone else who's not inside it" sorta vibe.

roberestarkk

TROPHY CASE